tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post6081260816964598032..comments2024-03-27T23:06:03.736-05:00Comments on The Music Salon: Friday MiscellaneaBryan Townsendhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-67769593662532865752018-07-14T17:15:35.620-05:002018-07-14T17:15:35.620-05:00It's funny, even though I subscribed to Downbe...It's funny, even though I subscribed to Downbeat when I was young, the only jazz albums I purchased back then, and listened to quite a bit, were Bitches Brew and Sketches of Spain.Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-27105363214098921662018-07-14T17:13:29.560-05:002018-07-14T17:13:29.560-05:00Jives, it is a great pity that you are not writing...Jives, it is a great pity that you are not writing reviews for the Washington Post instead of Anne Midgette. I was bothered by the "Broadway shows have better production values than operas" comment as well. They certainly have different production values.<br /><br />Your point about the depths of tradition is a very important one in my book. Not sure that Taruskin would take you to task at all!Bryan Townsendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482696991279345516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-73723321845687288132018-07-14T14:51:38.473-05:002018-07-14T14:51:38.473-05:00Apparently Miles Davis had no sense of guilt for t...Apparently Miles Davis had no sense of guilt for the way he appropriated a Spanish guitar and orchestra composition. That whole Sketches of Spain album is really nice listening!Will Wilkinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01997868915978439364noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8827040061563065922.post-73886456134412606762018-07-14T12:58:11.131-05:002018-07-14T12:58:11.131-05:00thanks for this post, it made me finally get aroun...thanks for this post, it made me finally get around to listening to some Hamilton. Sometimes wild popularity and fawning critical acclaim is a turn-off for me. Anyhoo, I listened and.....it's Broadway. Quite inventive and fun Broadway, if that's your thing. The main result of the rap idiom seems to be the flattening out of much melodic material into one-note rhythmic lines which might be better in another context, but don't work against the backdrop of sentimental harmonics that is the traditional palette of Broadway. An unproductive juxtaposition. <br /><br /> Maybe groundbreaking in some ways, but not earth-shattering and certainly not opera. Also, do these songs work anywhere else but in this show? Frequent thudding historical references seem to pull me out of whatever spell these songs are trying to cast. More than anything, I am reminded of Schoolhouse Rock.<br /><br />Anne Midgette's thesis is an absolute mess, mal-educated and unaware. She wants to heap lauds on the show and elevate it in our minds, but the only way she can think of to do that is to put it in opera's vaunted position. The same position she spends half the article tearing down. huh? <br /><br />and this...<br /> "Broadway shows have better production values than operas. How could they not? For all of the stereotypes about large-scale opera productions, and for all of their tremendous costs, opera generally comes to the stage after four to six weeks of rehearsal. Although the piece is almost always a known quantity, often adorned with the label of “masterpiece,” that amount of rehearsal time isn’t anywhere near enough to bring to the stage a well-oiled machine like “Hamilton,” honed over months of crafting and, by now, years of performance."<br /><br />It seems to me the exact opposite is true. I'm probably sounding dangerously Romantic here, but to my mind, the entire discipline of art music advances over time. Exponentially so in the digital age. Entirely discounted is the cascade of influence from artist to artist, generation to generation. We haven't been doing L'Orfeo for 6 weeks, in some sense we've been doing it for 400 years. Taruskin would probably slap me with a fallacy charge but so what! <br /><br />If Hamilton is opera for our time, then so is Grease. Jiveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02430049896063808671noreply@blogger.com